1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including a process of forming a thin film on a substrate, a method of processing a substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus and program preferably used in the method of processing the substrate.
2. Description of the Related Art
A silicon nitride (SiN) film has a high resistance to hydrogen fluoride (HF). Thus, the silicon nitride film may be used as an etch stopper layer during the etching of a silicon oxide (SiO) film in a manufacturing process of a semiconductor device, such as a large scale integration (LSI) device, a static random access memory (SRAM) device, or a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) device. For example, in a sidewall spacer (SWS) of a tri-layer lightly doped drain (LDD) structure in which a silicon nitride film and a silicon oxide film are stacked on a sidewall of a gate, the silicon nitride film is used as an etching stopper layer during a dry etching process owing to physical strength thereof. Also, even when a contact layer configured to connect an interconnection line and a transistor is formed, the silicon nitride film is used as an etching stopper layer during a dry etching process. Furthermore, a dry etching process is frequently followed by a wet etching process using a hydrogen fluoride-containing solution during which the silicon nitride film is also used as an etching stopper layer. Thus, the silicon nitride film used as the etching stopper layer requires a high resistance to hydrogen fluoride.
In addition, to prevent an increase in deviation of resistance of a gate electrode or diffusion of a dopant, after a gate electrode is formed, a silicon nitride film needs to be formed at a low temperature. For example, after the gate electrode is formed, the formation of the silicon nitride film needs to be performed at a temperature lower than a temperature of about 760° C. at which a film is formed using a conventional low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) process or a temperature of about 550° C. at which a film is formed using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) process. In particular, in a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device using a nickel silicide (NiSi) film as a gate, a source, and a drain, the formation of a silicon nitride film needs to be performed at a temperature of about 400° C. or less to suppress application of a thermal load to the nickel silicide film.